When I was twelve we lived in a big 'ol two story, five bedroom house. The only heat was a floor furnace. Money for gas was scarce. There were eight kids in the family, money for everything was scarce. One nice sunny day I was out in the front yard playing and having a good time. My step-mother came out on the steps and told me to come in to the house. "It is to cold out there." She was very insistent, I came in. It was freezing in the house!
I wonder how she came to the conclusion it was to cold for me to play outside. Maybe she assumed that since there was a furnace in the house it must be warmer inside. Or maybe she was just being a bitch and didn't like seeing me have fun. Either way I learned a very valuable lesson. You don't know what someone else's perception is. You are not in there body. There is no way to tell if someone is hot or cold, hungry or full, unless you ask them.
Likewise, you are not inside their head. you don't know what their experience is. I try not dismiss out of hand those who tell me they saw, or felt, or heard or feel things that I have not. "I saw a ghost", "God told me", "It was in another life". Who am I to say no that is not possible. Just because it hasn't happened to me doesn't mean it can't happen. And more importantly I have no idea what their experience has been. I may have been there with them, but I was not in their head.
My ex-wife told me once, at least once, when I had asked what she had said, "You heard me, I said it loud enough."
Yeah, well she was mumbling.
OWL
Nov. 19, 2011
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1 comment:
Charity is not in ones hearing nor is it to be found in ones other senses ... it is however in ones perception through those senses, modified by their remembered and not so remembered experiences. But an open mind, such as yours, already knows this and is all the better for the knowing! Hail to he who is accepting ...
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